FCC Seeks Comment on Whether Carriers Must Publicly Report How Many Towers Go Down During Emergencies

Under the proposal, the FCC would release data on the percentage of towers still up and running for each county in a disaster area whenever the FCC’s Disaster Information Reporting System is fully or partially activated, said FCC Public Safety Bureau Chief David Turetsky after the meeting. “That’s information that [carriers] provide daily during disasters today on a voluntary basis and you can derive the percentages from that information.” The FCC would try to create a “simple and clear metric that consumers can understand,” he said. “The level of outages affects both coverage and capacity.”

Turetsky said the FCC has noted different levels of performance by carriers in the same storm served by the same electric company “that are not currently known to consumers.” The data is already used by the federal government to direct emergency response to areas hit by a storm, he said. “So the information is considered valuable by the federal government itself to provide situational awareness.” The carriers themselves already use outage data “in talking about how they're doing,” Turetsky said. “They've said things like ‘we now have 90 percent of our sites operational as compared to 80 percent a few days ago so we're doing better.'”

Pai said the information carriers would have to release if rules are approved would lead to consumer confusion. “Just as Robert Griffin III’s 63.3 percent completion rate doesn’t tell you anything about the Washington Redskins’ overall performance this year, there’s no particular correlation between the percentage of inoperable cell sites and the coverage and capacity maintained by a provider during a disaster,” he said.

Pai was sharply critical of the bureau’s work on the notice. “I am disappointed that the commission was not willing to first figure out what additional information about network reliability, if any, consumers really want and need to make informed decisions before proposing this mandate,” he said. “I also have serious doubts about much of the analysis in the notice of proposed rulemaking, especially in those sections addressing the costs and benefits of the proposal and the commission’s legal authority."

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel countered that recent storms such as Sandy and the flooding in Colorado show the need for the FCC to do more to address communications during disasters. “Across the affected areas, one-quarter of our wireless towers failed” during Superstorm Sandy, she said. “At the moment that so many of us needed to reach out, one of our major means of communications did not work.” Carriers worked quickly to restore damaged facilities “but in disasters, days, minutes and seconds count,” she said.

The FCC must promote “an honest conversation” about communications in a digital age when many are cutting the cord, Rosenworcel said, though she indicated she also questions whether the NPRM was the right next step. “First, we must ask hard questions about backup power, and how to make sure our new networks are more dependable when we need them most,” she said. “Second, we need to make sure that consumers understand not just the benefits, but also the limitations, of new technologies when they reach out for assistance. Preparing for the unthinkable with extra batteries and solar-powered chargers when the plugs in the wall do not work is not just prudent, it is now necessary. While today’s rulemaking does not proceed neatly on these lines, I believe it is essential to continue the conversation."

Americans rely on their cellphones to call 911 and check on friends and family, acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn said. “But all too often wireless network outages in the wake of disasters leave many Americans disconnected at precisely the time they have the greatest need to communicate,” she said.

"Under this proposed rule, consumers could see how their carrier performs during a natural disaster, and how it measures up to other carriers,” said George Slover, CU senior policy counsel. “That would help consumers in choosing a carrier, and it would give carriers an additional healthy competitive spur to make sure their networks hold up in future disasters like Superstorm Sandy."

Carriers are already committed to making their networks as resilient as possible, said CTIA Vice President Scott Bergmann. “No government regulation can provide any greater incentive than carriers already have to provide the most reliable service possible,” he said in an emailed statement. “But it is critical that the Commission not myopically focus on indicia that do not provide consumers with empowering and meaningful information. Wireless consumers have a wealth of information regarding carriers’ service and reliability, including from consumer groups and other third parties, as well as the carriers themselves."

Competitive Carriers Association President Steve Berry said he’s disappointed the commission moved forward on an NPRM. “Our members are fully committed to ensuring their networks function at all times, especially in emergency situations,” Berry said. “Implementing additional requirements will place a significant burden on carriers, especially rural and regional carriers. Competitive carriers face a number of challenges already, and imposing additional, unnecessary requirements will only add more to their plates and take time away from their most important job -- building 4G networks and serving their customers."

"We've seen after Katrina, the derecho, and Sandy that communications networks aren’t always up to the challenge of allowing people to call emergency services, much less just to check in with loved ones,” said John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney at Public Knowledge, which supports the NPRM. “It will be important to separate out issues that are just about capacity and above-peak usage, power loss, and actual damage to facilities, and ensure we have policies in place to deal with whatever challenges may arise.” He called the FCC decision a step toward addressing some, but not all, of these challenges. “Measures like outage reporting requirements, while useful, are unlikely to be enough, especially because the events that challenge our networks, while increasingly frequent, are unpredictable, and the idea is to prevent problems and not just continually issue reports on what went wrong."

Free State Foundation President Randolph May said Pai made a good point on the lack of correlation between the percentage of inoperable cell sites and coverage by carriers during emergencies. “I agree it looks like there is significant potential to confuse consumers without meaningful offsetting gain,” he said. “That said, I'd rather not comment on Commissioner Pai’s example regarding RGIII and the Redskins’ performance this year. Sometimes it is discouraging enough just to consider what the commission itself is doing.”